Andreas Holmsen, Convex representations of Oriented Matroids

Many combinatorial problems and arguments concerning finite point sets in the Euclidean plane (or higher dimensions) often do not use the linear structure. A more general concept is that of an Oriented Matroid (OM). It is well-known that every OM can realized by pseudolines, and in fact most oriented matroids can not be realized by straight lines.
Recently, Alfreod Hubard (Courant Institute) and myself have found a new way to represent an OM by convex sets which retains much more of the “straightness” of the Euclidean plane. Interestingly, in our model the isotopy conjecture holds in a very strong sense, and it unifies several aspects of pseudoline arrangements.